Huntsville-based Qualitest Pharmaceuticals to expand with Cummings Research Park location

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- Qualitest Pharmaceuticals, a Huntsville-based generics pharmaceutical provider, will move its commercial functions to a new facility in Cummings Research Park in October.

The expansion is the result of the "growing demand for generics overall and the growth" of both Qualitest and its parent company, Endo Pharmaceuticals, said Daniel Carbery, Endo's senior vice president, specialty generics and technologies.

The move will prepare Qualitest for its planned expansion, including hiring as many as 200 additional employees by the end of this year, Carbery said.

Close to 75 employees have been hired at Qualitest since the beginning of the year.

The manufacturing, distribution and research and development operations will remain at the existing three-building campus in Chase Industrial Park, which is about 10 miles away from the new location on Research Drive.

Qualitest has about 1,200 employees in Huntsville and in Charlotte, N.C., with close to 1,000 in Huntsville. About 100 of the Huntsville employees will move to the new location, the company said.

Chadds Ford, Pa.-based Endo Pharmaceuticals acquired Qualitest late last year for about $1.2 billion in a move to strengthen its generics business and enhance its product line.

Qualitest, which operates as a wholly owned subsidiary, is the foundation of Endo's comprehensive generics business unit.

The Huntsville move, said Carbery, is "a very important milestone for us" and allows for the expansion of the commercial enterprise and the manufacturing and distribution operations.

"We've rolled Endo's generics business into Qualitest," he said.

Carbery said that 70 to 80 percent of the prescriptions filled in the United States are generics.

Founded in 1983, Qualitest has a portfolio of more than 600 products and is now the No. 6 ranking suppliers of generics, based on total prescriptions filled, in the United States.

Other Endo Pharmaceuticals subsidiaries are American Medical Systems and HealthTronics.